Central Asian labor migrants in Russia have been experiencing increased xenophobic harassment, hate speech, and violence since the deadly attack attributed to Central Asians on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22, 2024, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on March 18. 

The 63-page report, “Living in Fear and Humiliation: Rising Xenophobic Harassment and Violence towards Central Asian Migrants in Russia,” documents that Central Asian migrants, mostly from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan working in Russia face ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrests, and harassment by police and private actors, including far-right nationalist groups.  Migrants are also subject to new, often abusive administrative restrictions.  Following the attack, Russian officials doubled down, fanning the fire of racist and anti-migrant public sentiments.  Russian authorities should condemn any expression of xenophobia, including by their own officials, and work to ensure full compliance with the rights of migrants.

HRW interviewed Central Asian migrants with experience of working in Russia, as well as lawyers, civil society leaders, and other experts from Russia and Central Asia.  HRW also analyzed relevant media including videos shared on social media of hate-motivated attacks on Central Asian migrants.

The report notes that Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on migrant labor.  Close to 3.3 million migrant workers from Central Asia were in Russia in 2024. Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities largely succeeded in stifling ultra-nationalist groups, however a new generation of ultranationalists has recently emerged, according to the report.

“On March 22, 2024, gunmen attacked Crocus City Hall in the outskirts of Moscow during a heavily attended concert, killing at least 144 people and injuring 551.  Russian authorities detained 4 Tajikistan citizens as the main suspects, and at least 23 others, mostly of Central Asian origin, suspected of connections to the gunmen.  Russian law enforcement brutally tortured at least two of the suspects, with Russian federal television broadcasting recordings of the torture.  The suspects have yet to face trial.”

In the summer of 2024, Russian authorities reportedly amended laws regulating the legal status of foreigners in Russia to grant police broader authority to expel migrants without specific court orders.  The authorities also created a “registry of controlled persons,” a database of migrants with expired permits.  Since taking effect in February 2025, these changes have prevented hundreds of migrants who were in the country legally from accessing their Russian bank accounts due to technical issues with the registry system.

Under legislation adopted in 2024, foreign children need to prove Russian language proficiency to enter public schools.  The requirement effectively legitimizes the pre-existing practice of schools across Russia refusing admission to children of Central Asian migrants.  Authorities in several regions of Russia have banned migrants from working in certain job sectors, including education, commerce, social services, public transportation, culture, and entertainment.

As part of Russia's war in Ukraine, Central Asian migrants and naturalized Russian citizens of Central Asian origin have reportedly been increasingly targeted for military recruitment, with Russian authorities often using arbitrary detention and threats of deportation to force them to enlist.

HRW reportedly analyzed 17 cases from a database collated by Nazi Video Monitoring Project, a group of Russian anti-fascist activists, from Telegram channels run by xenophobic and neo-Nazi groups. The cases involve coordinated physical assaults by young Slavic-looking men on Central Asian men working in construction, maintenance, and service sectors. The attacks – beatings or with pepper-spray – were often accompanied by ethnic slurs or xenophobic statements in the captions to the videos filmed by the assailants.

Although Russia has a criminal law banning “incitement of interethnic hate,” it is rarely applied in connection with xenophobic violence against Central Asians.  Most cases of xenophobic violence that make it to trial are prosecuted on charges of “hooliganism” or other criminal charges without the “hate” component.

HRW presented its research findings to appropriate authorities in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Russia.  The government of Kyrgyzstan is the only one that responded.